12dz Chapter 144 Countdown
Chapter 144 Countdown
"Ten chapters, time waits for no one." The voice of the True Core echoed in the starry sky, like a hammer pounding on the chest.
Chen Fan looked up at the dark red clouds. Within the clouds, runes flickered, as if counting down the time.
"If we don't finish writing the second rule within ten chapters, the old order will make a comeback." A sharp light flashed in Zhenhe's eyes.
Chen Fan nodded. He pressed the black lamp in his hand even tighter, and the golden cudgel hummed a deep sound in Wukong's hand.
"We have to get there first," Wukong said, his voice brimming with passion.
"Chen Xuance also knows the time limit," Chen Fan said, his gaze sweeping towards the distant mountains. Behind those mountains, a troop of silver-armored soldiers was approaching.
Chen Xuance stood atop the mountain, his eyes blazing with fury. He drew a cold iron sword, its tip pointing straight at the heavens.
"You think you can escape?" he roared. "I will bury you all in the dust of history."
With a flick of his wrist, Wukong unleashed a beam of golden light from his golden cudgel. The beam pierced the night sky, heading straight for Chen Xuance.
Chen Fan remained still, the black lamp in his hand releasing dark ripples. The ripples surged forward like a tide, engulfing the sword light.
"Hmph, useless." Chen Xuance sneered, "Without that slip of paper, all the rules are just for show."
Chen Fan frowned. He folded the paper into a small boat and gently tossed it onto the azure lake. The paper boat left faint traces on the water before sinking into the abyss.
"We must bring back the complete conclusion page," Chen Fan said in a low voice. "Only that page can seal the second point."
A ruthless glint flashed in Wukong's eyes: "Then let's just knock Chen Xuance unconscious and take him away."
Chen Fan shook his head: "Even if we pin him to the ground, it's all for nothing if he doesn't sign. The system's restrictions cannot be broken."
Chen Xuance looked at the two of them coldly, a mocking smile on his lips: "Your plans are all just empty talk; the real power is in my hands."
"Stop talking nonsense." Wukong strode up the mountain peak and slammed his golden cudgel into Chen Xuance's chest. A blood-red gash appeared on his chest, like a branding iron that had been cut open.
Chen Xuance took three steps back, his sword flashing suddenly as a black barrier formed in front of his chest. Outside the barrier, blood mist churned.
"The show begins." Truecore's voice rang out again, and the countdown numbers jumped in the air: ten, nine, eight...
Chen Fan quickly flipped through the black lamp in his hand, searching for a breakthrough. He ran his fingertip along the edge of the paper, and the paper unexpectedly glowed.
"We can write the rules on this page," Chen Fan exclaimed. "As long as we finish writing it here, the laws of the old world will be rewritten."
Wukong raised his golden cudgel again and slammed it down on the base of the stone bridge. The stone bridge trembled, and cracks appeared on its surface.
"The final battle will be decided by the Stone Bridge, and the winner will be determined by the draw," Wukong announced loudly, his voice echoing through the valley.
Chen Fan and Chen Xuance exchanged glances, then rushed towards the bridgehead simultaneously. The water beneath the bridge churned rapidly, as if to engulf them.
Chen Xuance drew his sword and rushed onto the bridge. A streak of blue light flashed from the sword tip, instantly slicing through the runes on the bridge. The runes exploded, scattering purple sparks in all directions.
Ignoring the rolling rock debris behind him, Chen Fan leaped onto the bridge and used the black lamp to write two large characters in the air: "The End." The black lamp then transformed into a blazing fire, burning away the fog below the bridge.
"If we don't finish writing, the old order will be resurrected." Truecore's voice became urgent.
Just then, the water beneath the bridge suddenly surged violently. A huge undercurrent burst forth, splitting the surface of the water to reveal a bottomless pool.
The rolling red mist in the pool churned like blood, and at its center floated a pitch-black stone slab engraved with ancient runes.
"The Primal Erasure Pool," Chen Fan murmured, his brows furrowed.
A look of terror flashed in Wukong's eyes: "That's the place where all memories are erased."
Chen Xuance sneered: "If we finish writing the rules, I will use that to eliminate you all."
Chen Fan stood at the bridgehead, the black lamp in his hand had burned out, leaving only warmth. He took a deep breath, his eyes resolute.
"The countdown to Chapter Ten has begun. Whoever steps into the pool first will have the final say."
Their eyes met, and on the broken bridge, the ticking of time drew ever closer.
Just as they were about to take a step, a deep hum suddenly came from the bottom of the pool, and a golden beam of light shot into the sky, with a shimmering ancient rune hanging at the top of the beam.
The radiance emanating from the talisman shone on everyone's faces, revealing countless bloodstains.
"What...is this?" Wukong asked in a low voice.
Chen Fan's fingers unconsciously clenched into fists, and the remaining embers of the black light trembled slightly at his fingertips.
"It looks like the real test has just begun," he said.
At the bottom of the primordial erasure pool, a golden pillar of light is slowly descending, as if an unknown power is waiting to be awakened.
Chapter 391 If you fall, you're really gone.
The beam of light struck the surface of the pool without a sound, only golden ripples spreading outwards. The pool water churned and hissed, and wherever it passed, the black rocks instantly lost their color, turning grayish-white, then shattering into powder, swept away by the ripples and disappearing. The ground beneath Chen Fan and Chen Xuance collapsed simultaneously, and the two leaped backward, landing on the stone bridge that rose from the pool.
The bridge was only a hand's width wide, slippery, and without railings. Below lay the churning Eradication Pool, where golden patterns swirled at the bottom like the entrails of living creatures. Illuminated by beams of light, one end of the bridge connected to the rocky cliff where they had just stood, while the other stretched into the deeper darkness of the pool, its destination unknown.
"The rules are clear?" Chen Xuance steadied himself, twirling the pen halfway between his fingers, a smirk playing on his lips. "This bridge, one wrong step, one slip, and you'll fall. The Erasure Pool doesn't recognize shells; it only recognizes 'same origins.' We were both peeled off from the original 'Chen Fan,' and it can wash us back to the most primal blank template—the kind of blank that wipes even our memories clean."
Chen Fan didn't reply, the black lamp held horizontally in front of him. The last remaining gray embers of the lamp wick were still flickering weakly, each flicker sending a tingling sensation through his wrist.
"Steadfast?" Chen Fan uttered a single word.
"Hmm." Chen Xuance nodded, his pen tip pointing at the bridge surface. "My moves are slow, but every step is calculated. You're good at changing your stance, quick to dodge, and finding openings. But this bridge is only a palm's width wide," he said, his heel dangling in the air as he moved back half an inch, causing pebbles to roll off the side of the bridge, instantly turning to dust upon contact with the golden pattern. "There's nowhere for you to dodge. If you change your stance, you might slip. I'm steady, forcing you to the edge with every step."
Before he finished speaking, he moved.
It wasn't a charge, it was pressure. He took a step forward, the pen aimed at Chen Fan's throat. The movement wasn't fast, even deliberate, but that deliberation itself was pressure—he knew Chen Fan wouldn't dare take it head-on, only retreat. Chen Fan indeed retreated, his heel immediately slamming into the bridge edge, sending pebbles tumbling down. He sidestepped, a black light sweeping across, smashing towards the pen.
Chen Xuance flicked his wrist, changing the brushstroke from a point to a sweep, lightly brushing against the lamp. There was no tremendous force of impact, only a subtle, yin-like energy traveling through the darkness, making Chen Fan's hand go numb, and the lamp almost slipped from his grasp. He forced himself to steady himself, using the momentum to lunge forward, trying to reclaim the center line. Chen Xuance, however, had already taken a step back, still maintaining his composed demeanor, the tip of his brush still pointing towards Chen Fan's inevitable path.
"See that?" Chen Xuance said. "I don't use force, I just hold my position. You charge, I yield; you stop, I press. Guess, is your change of tactics faster, or my position more stable?"
Chen Fan's breath hitched. This bridge was a death trap, and even more so, a millstone for Chen Xuance. His opponent didn't need to suppress him; he only needed to grind him down little by little to the edge.
He flung the black lamp out, not at a person, but at the bridge surface. The lamp struck the bridge stone with a crisp sound, sending stone chips flying. Chen Xuance flicked his pen, sending all the stone chips hurtling towards Chen Fan's face. Taking advantage of the moment, Chen Fan ducked and lunged at Chen Xuance's lower body, his fingers grabbing for his ankle. This was a street thug's trick, ruthless and focused solely on close combat.
Chen Xuance was serious. He leaped up, his brush tracing a semicircle in the air—not a dot, but a slash. Before the brush tip even arrived, a sharp gust of wind pressure made Chen Fan's scalp tingle. Chen Fan forcefully twisted his body, his shoulder slamming into the bridge stone, a sharp pain shooting through him, but he had dodged the slash. As soon as he landed, Chen Xuance had already returned to his original position, his expression unchanged.
"It's useless," Chen Xuance said. "The change of tactics is about trading space for time. There's no space here."
Chen Fan didn't answer, staring at the other person's hands. Those hands, exactly like his own, with distinct knuckles, gripped that old pen. Why were their techniques different, yet their starting stances so similar?
"Can't figure it out?" Chen Xuance seemed to see right through him. "Because we're fundamentally the same. It's just that I took the 'steady' path, while you learned the 'change' approach. But we arrive at the same destination by different paths, sharing the same origin." He suddenly took half a step forward, his pen moving as fast as lightning, piercing straight for Chen Fan's heart.
Chen Fan reacted quickly, turning to the side, but the bridge was too narrow. He felt a chill on his left rib; it wasn't a stab, but rather the force of the pen tip tearing his clothes, leaving a burning pain on his skin. He staggered, his right foot missing its mark.
Gravel rolled down.
He suddenly exerted force with his left foot, twisting his body sharply to the right and falling onto the bridge. In that instant, Chen Xuance's pen had already touched the spot where he had just stood, the tip of the pen sinking three inches into the bridge stone.
"Almost." Chen Xuance put down his pen, his tone calm. "If you had taken that next step, it might have been the last."
Chen Fan clutched his ribs, warm blood seeping out. He stared at Chen Xuance; there was no mockery, no excitement, only an almost cold focus on the other's face. This sank deeper into his heart than any mockery.
"Are you watching a show?" Chen Fan suddenly lowered his voice and said to the air.
There was no response. But Chen Fan knew they were watching.
Huaguoshan.
Before the Water Curtain Cave, a giant water mirror floats, reflecting the scene on the stone bridge. The mirror is crowded with demon kings, monkey soldiers, and dragons.
"Master!" Wukong's eyes were bloodshot, his fists were clenched so tightly that they cracked, and his knuckles turned white.
"Brother Fan!" The white dragon horse transformed into human form and rushed to the mirror, its palm almost pressing into it.
"Hold on." The Bull Demon King pressed down on the White Dragon Horse's shoulder, his own throat dry. "If you fall, you're really gone."
Pigsy, flapping his big ears and his fat face turning red, exclaimed, "This bridge is so narrow! That bastard Chen Xuance is so dirty! He's just forcing me!"
"Chen Fan is looking for an opportunity," Wukong Lowers' voice said, his eyes fixed on the blood on Chen Fan's ribs reflected in the mirror. "But there's no opportunity on that bridge."
"Chen Xuance's pen is the embodiment of rules." Sha Wujing's face was ashen. "Every stroke he makes weakens the stability of 'Chen Fan's' shell. If this continues, the shell will collapse on its own, without him even having to fall off."
"What should we do then?" The white dragon horse turned to look at Wukong.
Wukong remained silent, his teeth clenched. He knew better than anyone that Chen Fan had staked his last chance on that one step—securing the "official plan." But now, it seemed even that chance of battle was gone.
On the stone bridge, Chen Fan gasped for breath. The taste of blood filled his mouth. He had tried three routes of attack, all of which had been blocked beforehand. Chen Xuance was truly like a wall, slow but unshakeable. With each step he retreated, more rubble rolled down the side of the bridge.
"Your 'transformation' requires a preparatory phase, it needs space." Chen Xuance approached again, his pen tip trembling slightly. "There isn't one here. Your embers can barely protect your shell from immediately collapsing, but they can't protect against repeated attacks. After three more hits, the cracks in your shell will be impossible to hide."
Chen Fan suddenly laughed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth: "And what about you? Your 'steadiness,' doesn't it take your energy? Positioning, calculation, prediction. You're calculating every single step, anticipating my next move. But what if I don't follow your calculations?"
"You'll fall down," Chen Xuance said.
"Or," Chen Fan raised his blood-stained hand, and the ashes of the black lamp wick suddenly surged, not with warmth, but with a bone-chilling cold, "I'll make you fall down too."
He suddenly shoved the black light into the bridge stone—not to fix it in place, but to blast it apart.
There was no loud noise, only a muffled groan. Ash erupted from the lamp wick, not attacking Chen Xuance, but instantly covering the bridge beneath their feet. The stone bridge was soaked in ash, its color rapidly darkening from grayish-white to a void-like black. The stones beneath Chen Xuance's feet suddenly became slippery, and the brick structure groaned under the weight of the ash.
Chen Xuance's expression finally changed. He took a half step back, touched the ground with the tip of his pen, and steadied himself. But the bridge was collapsing, spreading rapidly outwards from where they were standing.
"Want to die together with me?" Chen Xuance's voice turned cold.
"Or I'll force you to move." Chen Fan grinned, his face smeared with blood. "Your 'stability' is built on the stability of the bridge. If the bridge collapses, your positioning will be a joke." He stirred the black lamp violently, spraying ash even more fiercely. "Come on, consider this my next move! Should I attack you? Or seize the center of the bridge? Or—just kick you off?"
Chen Xuance was silent for a moment, then suddenly moved. He no longer moved straight forward, but instead moved along the edge of the bridge that was about to collapse. Each time he touched the edge of the stone that had not yet collapsed, he used the pen tip to maneuver, his speed was astonishing, completely breaking away from the framework of "stability". He bypassed the area covered by ash, rushed in from the side, and thrust straight at Chen Fan's throat.
Chen Fan hadn't expected him to switch modes so instantly, a completely different style of "transformation." He tried to block the light with his hand, but an old wound under his ribs aggravated his movement, making him a fraction of a second slower. The pen tip grazed his neck, leaving a trail of blood.
The blood droplets on the bridge were immediately absorbed by the ashes, causing the bridge surface to collapse even faster.
Chen Fan staggered backward, the stone beneath his feet shattering with a crash. His left foot dangled in the air, with only the toe of his right foot touching a constantly peeling stone ridge. His body tilted, with the churning golden-patterned pool of water below.
The pool water hissed and surged upwards, like sharks smelling blood.
"It's over." Chen Xuance stood on the relatively stable bridge surface, pen tip hanging low, breathing slightly rapid—his "stability" had been forced to be countered by "change," a process that consumed a great deal of energy. "Your shell has cracked."
Chen Fan looked down and saw several fine, glowing cracks slowly appearing on the back of his right hand, like ice patterns on porcelain. These were the marks of his "shell" being eroded by the rules. With each additional crack, his existence became weaker.
If you fall, you're really gone.
No, it wasn't just falling down. Chen Fan suddenly realized that with each strike of Chen Xuance's pen, the stability of his identity as "Chen Fan" was being weakened. The erasure pool was the end, but the pen was a blunt knife, slowly turning him from "Chen Fan" into "nothingness."
He must fight back, but only before the shell completely collapses.
But the bridge surface is collapsing, and there's a pond right next to it.
Below, the pool water became more active due to the fluctuations of the two shells, and the golden patterns converged into a blurry giant eye, which slowly opened and looked at the two "homogeneous entities" on the bridge that were about to be erased.
Using the last bit of ash from the black lamp, Chen Fan forcibly created a small, stable foothold, barely managing to steady himself. He was panting, and the cracks on the back of his hands had widened.
Chen Xuance didn't attack immediately. He stared at the cracks on Chen Fan's hand, then looked at his own hand holding the pen—his hand also had fine cracks, only fainter. Both of them were being eroded by the pool's rules, just to different degrees.
"You too..." Chen Fan hissed.
"Nonsense." Chen Xuance sneered, "'Same-origin shell,' if I try to cleanse you, I'll get a layer of skin scraped off myself. But your shell is thinner and more brittle. Once your shell collapses, mine will be just enough."
So that's how it is. This wasn't just simple defense; it was a war of attrition. Chen Xuance used "stability" to conserve resources, forcing Chen Fan to fight desperately with "change," ultimately waiting for Chen Fan's shell to shatter first. A brilliant plan.
Chen Fan suddenly laughed, his mouth full of blood: "Then you missed one thing in your calculations."
"What?"
"I'm crazier than you." Chen Fan suddenly pointed the black light at the crack on the back of his hand, not to defend himself, but to stab.
The ash from the lamp wick surged wildly into the crack, not to repair it, but to detonate it. The intense pain blurred his vision, but the crack on the back of his hand instantly widened, becoming a gruesome wound from which gray light erupted, ten times more intense than before. This force indiscriminately swept across the bridge, turning the stone bridge to dust at a visible speed, even the stone beneath Chen Xuance's feet began to crumble.
Caught off guard, Chen Xuance suddenly lost his footing. His expression changed drastically, and he frantically tapped his brush in the air, each tap using the still-fragmented void as he spun like a top, trying to steady himself. But the scouring of the ashes was too intense, and he was ultimately swept away from the center.
Almost simultaneously, their feet lost their footing.
Chen Fan was prepared. As the ashes erupted, he used his last strength to lunge towards Chen Xuance.
It wasn't an attack, it was a capture.
He grabbed Chen Xuance's wrist, which was holding the pen, with one hand, and reached for the other's collar with the other. As Chen Xuance fell, the pen instinctively swerved back, aiming at Chen Fan's outstretched wrist. Chen Fan didn't back down; instead, he faced the pen tip, letting it glide across his arm before gripping it firmly!
"Together!" Chen Fan growled in a low voice.
The two of them fell into the pool together.
The golden pool water swirled joyfully, welcoming these two "shared origins" that were about to be erased.
Just as his body was about to submerge in the pool, Chen Fan used the last of Black Lamp's power to create an ash barrier between them. The pool water crashed against the barrier, hissing as it corroded, but the barrier only lasted for half a breath. Half a breath was enough.
Using the recoil from that half-breath, Chen Fan used all his strength to throw Chen Xuance toward the last remaining stone on the bridge.
He himself, however, plunged into the deeper part of the pool in the opposite direction.
"Are you crazy?!" Chen Xuance shouted in mid-air, then was thrown back to the edge of the bridge, where he gripped a crack in the stone with one hand.
Chen Fan's body was mostly submerged in the Golden Pattern Pool. As the pool water seeped in, the cracks on the back of his hands, neck, and face spread wildly, and the words beneath his skin, the marks belonging to "Chen Fan," were rapidly peeling away and disappearing. The excruciating pain blurred his consciousness, and he saw Chen Xuance hanging by the bridge above, his eyes filled with astonishment and disbelief as he looked at him.
"If I fall, I'll really be gone," Chen Fan thought, but a smile crept onto his lips. His shell was disappearing rapidly. But his "transformation" was the final step.
The moment the pool water submerged his mouth and nose, he detonated all the remaining ashes of the black lamp.
It's not an attack on Chen Xuance.
It crashed fiercely into the bottom of the pool, into the place where the golden light shone the brightest.
"Want a homologous shell? Fine." That was the only thought in Chen Fan's final consciousness. "Here's a big one for you."
The Golden Pattern Pool suddenly froze due to his deliberate impact. The suspended pillar of light trembled violently.
In front of the water mirror.
"Master—!!!" Wukong's roar shattered the surface of the water mirror.
Bajie collapsed to the ground: "Brother Fan... fell down..."
Sha Wujing closed his eyes: "The shell... is broken."
The white dragon horse transformed into a real dragon, its roar shaking the heavens, and was about to rush into the water mirror.
"Don't move!" the Bull Demon King roared. "He's not done yet!"
On the ruins of the stone bridge, Chen Xuance lay prone in a crevice, watching the gray speck of light in the pool gradually being swallowed by the golden patterns, and then looking at the deeper cracks on his hands caused by the ash that had washed over them. He suddenly understood the meaning of Chen Fan's last move.
That wasn't resignation; it was a suicidal, all-or-nothing pollution. Chen Fan used his own disintegrating shell to contaminate the core "cleaning mechanism" of the cleaning pool. He transformed himself into the dirtiest stain and stuffed himself into the machine.
The pool needs to be "washed back to blankness," but what will happen if it swallows such a self-destructed shell full of "Chen Fan variables"?
The beam of light began to waver, its golden hue tinged with gray. Chen Fan's last words echoed from the bottom of the pool, reverberating throughout the entire space through the ripples in the water:
"My shell, is it the 'proper' you wanted? Now, it's a 'scrap'."
Chen Xuance suddenly looked up at the pillar of light.
At the base of the pillar of light, amidst the swirling gray and gold, something that was neither a rune nor writing began to emerge—
It is the outline of **another page**.
A brand new, blank sheet of paper, but the edges of which have been charred black by Chen Fan's self-destructive shell information.
At the same time, the water mirror of Flower Fruit Mountain flickered wildly, distorting all projections. The stone bridge vanished completely, and the Erasure Pool remained still for a moment.
Then, the pool water began to backflow.
It's not about devouring, it's about **erupting**.
The golden pool water, carrying ash and mixed with fragments of rules that had not yet completely dissipated, gushed out like a fountain toward the ruins of the stone bridge, toward the pillar of light, and toward the entire battlefield.
Chen Xuance gripped the crack in the rock tightly, watching the pool water mixed with Chen Fan's remains spray into the sky, mingling with the beam of light and completely disrupting the gold and gray hues.
He suddenly felt a huge, incalculable "variable" rushing into this closed-loop battlefield.
Chen Fan's logic is simple: You want to use the wiping pool to cleanse me? Fine, I'll cleanse myself too, but while I'm cleaning, I'll fill it with "change," fill it with "uncertainty," fill it with scrapped cases that your "stable" system can't handle. Now, the pool is contaminated. The rules are short-circuited.
And the newly emerging outline of the blank page...
Is it a new "official proposal"? Or an even bigger "rejected proposal"?
Chen Xuance's fingers dug into the stone, his knuckles turning white. For the first time, he truly felt the chill of "loss of control."
Slowly, very slowly, he pushed himself up from the crack in the stone and stood back on the unstable, broken bridge surface. The pen tip drooped, dripping not ink, but a strange, grayish-gold liquid mixed with pool water.
He looked at the gray-gold fountain in the air, at the faintly visible new pages of paper, and then at the cracks on the back of his hand that were spreading from the pool water, just like the ones on Chen Fan's shell.
Then, he made a gesture.
He raised his pen and assumed a starting stance.
It wasn't the steady, positional opening move that Chen Xuance usually used.
Rather, it's a more elusive, more unpredictable, more... **unpredictable** starting move. Like the wind, like ashes, like something that can scatter and reform at any moment.
It was **almost exactly the same** as when Chen Fan used the black light.
Before the water mirror, everyone held their breath.
Wukong stared at the starting stance, his pupils suddenly contracting: "That...that is..."
Bajie's voice trembled: "Brother Chen Fan's... change of tactics?"
No one answered.
On the ruins of the stone bridge, Chen Xuance remained in the same starting stance, his face expressionless. Only the gray-gold in his eyes grew increasingly intense.
He spoke slowly, facing the empty fountain, or the outline of the new page, or perhaps the last remaining vestige of Chen Fan's consciousness:
The sound traveled through the vibrating pool water:
"Do you think you're the only one who can 'change'?"
The pen tip moved at that moment.
It's not a dot, it's a wave.
A gray-gold, shapeless arc of light, yet containing countless possibilities, slashed toward the core of the erupting pool water.
**Chapter Ending Suspense**: Did the arc of light that Chen Xuance unleashed slash into the pool's fountain, the pillar of light, or that new page? Amidst the chaotic flow of gray-gold rules, could Chen Fan's remaining consciousness still perceive all of this? And was that "variant" move, identical to Chen Fan's starting stance, Chen Xuance's trump card, or... the beginning of his complete corruption by the "same origin"?
The water mirror of Huaguo Mountain shattered completely into countless spots of light. Everyone only saw the last moment—on the stone bridge, Chen Xuance's figure, against the backdrop of the gray-gold fountain, was like a blurry shadow, collapsing and reforming.
And deep within the pool, that purest gray shimmered slightly.
It was like a response, yet also like a cold laugh.
Chapter 392 I can do this too
Chen Xuance raised his hand.
Chen Fan had seen that starting stance before.
False annotation.
A gray-gold light surged from Chen Xuance's fingertips, condensing into the same symbolic structure in the air—the very move Chen Fan had used just a few minutes ago.
"you……"
Chen Fan's pupils suddenly contracted.
Chen Xuance's face was expressionless, only something burning deep within his eyes. It was something that had been suppressed for a long time, like anger, or something even deeper.
"Surprised?" Chen Xuance's voice was soft. "You really think you're the only one who could have thought of this?"
Wukong gasped in shock.
Chen Fan's brain was racing.
No, that's not right.
The idea of pseudo-annotation is a variation he barely managed to deduce by combining the rule loopholes of the "moral system" with his understanding of the "proper case" structure accumulated in Huaguo Mountain over the past century.
How could Chen Xuance possibly...?
unless……
"You also came from another time?" Chen Fan blurted out.
Chen Xuance sneered: "Wear? I don't understand what you're talking about."
"Then how could you...?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Chen Xuance interrupted him. "Do you think the review standards for the 'official' proposal were just made up out of thin air? Those rules were written by someone. If they can be written, why can't they be imitated?"
He paused, and the gray-gold light at his fingertips grew stronger.
"And who told you I was using 'pseudo-annotations'?"
Chen Fan was stunned.
Yes, if he wasn't using pseudo-comments...
What is that?
Chen Xuance's figure appeared somewhat blurry in the light. His voice came from the depths of the light: "Chen Fan, you've always thought you were very clever. You think only you can see the loopholes in the rules."
"But have you ever thought about this?"
"Those who make the rules also emerge from loopholes."
This sentence struck like a muffled thunderclap.
Chen Fan opened his mouth, only to find that he couldn't refute it.
Chen Xuance slowly took a step forward.
"I've seen the concatenation scheme. Your approach is correct, but your solution is too crude. That's not how the rules are played."
"You…" Chen Fan gritted his teeth, "Who exactly are you?"
Chen Xuance stopped in his tracks.
"Who am I?"
He repeated the three words, as if savoring them.
"I am you."
"wrong……"
"It's another possibility for you." Chen Xuance's voice suddenly lowered. "You chose the left path. I chose the right path."
"right?"
"The right side is for listening. I do whatever the Observer tells me to do. Don't ask why, and don't think about why." Chen Xuance raised his hand, looking at the light at his fingertips. "This set of pseudo-annotations was taught to me by the Observer."
"impossible……"
"What's impossible?" Chen Xuance finally laughed, but there was no warmth in his smile. "Who do you think wrote the 'final draft'? Who do you think set those review standards?"
"It is an observer."
"How is the observer's name written?"
Chen Fan couldn't answer.
"You can't answer that, right?" Chen Xuance lowered his hand. "Because you've never thought about this question. You only know that there are loopholes in the rules, and then you try to exploit those loopholes."
"But I'm different."
He raised his head, his eyes sharpening.
"I would ask: Why are there loopholes in the rules?"
Chen Fan felt a chill rise from the soles of his feet.
Yes, he had never thought about that question.
Why are there loopholes in the rules?
Was it an oversight in the observer settings?
Was it intentional?
If it was intentional... why?
"You can't figure it out, can you?" Chen Xuance took another step forward. "Because you can't figure it out, you don't understand why I can use the same moves as you."
"because……"
"Because I wrote the rules themselves." Chen Xuance's voice was soft, but every word struck Chen Fan's heart like a hammer blow. "Or rather, I wrote a part of the rules."
Chen Fan's mind went blank.
"Otherwise, how do you think the standards for the 'final decision' came about? They were the optimal solution found through countless attempts by 'me's'." Chen Xuance stopped in his tracks. "And you are just one variable in that optimal solution."
"Are you kidding me...?"
"I'm not joking." Chen Xuance raised his hand, a gray-gold light dancing on his fingertips. "It took me thirty-two years to write the rules of the 'official plan' as they are now."
"And you, in just one year, figured out the loophole in the rules."
What does this mean?
He looked at Chen Fan with a complex expression in his eyes.
"This shows that you are smarter than I was back then."
Chen Fan felt his heart skip a beat.
wrong.
That's not right.
He found every word Chen Xuance said absurd, yet at the same time felt...it made sense.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why Chen Xuance would know about the fake annotations.
It is also inexplicable why all of Chen Xuance's habits are so similar to his.
"I have a question." Chen Fan took a deep breath to calm himself down.
"ask."
"Since you're the one who made the rules, why are you trying to stop me?"
Chen Xuance remained silent for a few seconds.
"Because I set the rules, but I wasn't the one who made them."
"Who?"
"The Observer".
Another observer.
Chen Fan gritted his teeth: "Who exactly is the observer?"
"I have no idea."
"you do not know?"
"I really don't know." Chen Xuance lowered his hand, and the light gradually faded. "I only know that the Observer gave me a task: to ensure the smooth operation of the 'proposal'."
"Any factor that undermines the operation of the 'proper plan' must be eliminated."
"Including me?"
"Including you."
The air seemed to freeze.
Wukong quietly took a step forward, blocking Chen Fan's path.
Chen Xuance glanced at him and sneered, "You want to protect him?"
Wukong remained silent, but he did not back down either.
"It's no use." Chen Xuance shook his head. "Even the two of you combined are no match for me."
"and……"
He paused.
"I don't want to fight you."
Chen Fan raised an eyebrow: "Then what do you want?"
"I want..."
Chen Xuance stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence.
A flicker of hesitation crossed his eyes.
Chen Fan saw it.
Right now.
He took a sudden step forward.
"I'll do the combined file plan again." Chen Fan raised his hand, and a gray-gold light shone at his fingertips. "This time it's not a fake annotation, it's real."
"A true combined volume."
Chen Xuance raised his head, his eyes turning wary: "What do you want to do?"
"Nothing," Chen Fan said softly, "I just want to ask you a question."
"What?"
"If the rules themselves are wrong, why can't they be changed?"
Chen Xuance's body suddenly stiffened.
"The rules aren't wrong." His voice was a little hoarse. "The rules are the optimal solution that countless people have verified."
"But even those who verify it can be wrong."
"you……"
"Chen Xuance." Chen Fan called him by name for the first time. "Are you really sure the rules are correct?"
Chen Xuance did not answer.
His lips moved, but no sound came out.
Chen Fan looked into his eyes and saw that the hesitation had deepened.
"The observers tell you the rules are correct," Chen Fan said steadily, "but have you verified them?"
Chen Xuance remained silent.
But his fingers began to tremble slightly.
Chen Fan knew that his opportunity had arrived.
"I don't need your help." He took another step forward, very slowly, as if afraid of startling something. "I just need you to stop for a moment."
"Stop for a moment and think about it."
"Think about whether the rules are actually correct."
Chen Xuance lowered his head even further.
Wukong watched the two of them nervously, barely daring to breathe.
Time seemed to stand still.
I don't know how much time has passed—
Chen Xuance finally raised his head.
His eyes were complicated, as if two versions of himself were fighting.
"I……"
His voice was terribly hoarse.
"I can't..."
He stopped halfway through his sentence.
Chen Fan didn't urge him, he just kept looking at him.
Chen Xuance's fingers trembled more and more violently.
Then--
He nodded.
A very, very small amplitude.
But Chen Fan saw it.
End of chapter.
Chapter 393 Do You Dare to Bet With Me?
The mist in the canyon cut like blades against the skin. Chen Fan stood on the edge of the cliff, his eyes flashing with a cold light.
"If you stick to the old rules, you'll live a few more days at most; if you join me, at least we can break down the door." His voice wasn't loud, but it pressed the air down firmly.
Chen Xuance frowned slightly, the pebbles in his hand tumbling between his fingers.
"What guarantees you won't make it worse after it's rolled up?" He threw the gravel onto the ground, the stone chips scattering like a silent mockery.
Chen Fan turned around and pointed to the projected Huaguo Mountain. In the projection, dozens of warriors who had risen from the ruins were raising tattered flags, the crimson glow of the sunset reflecting on their armor.
"I guarantee it with the lives of those who have survived along the way." Every face in the projection was filled with stubbornness.
Beyond the projection, the voices of the real world resounded in unison.
"We're all here!" roared an armored warrior.
"Don't hesitate, follow me!" Another female general gripped her spear, her eyes burning with determination.
"Let's gamble together, even if we all lose, we won't regret it!" A group of teenagers held up tattered talismans, their voices like waves crashing against a rock wall.
The sound echoed through the valley, like a crack torn open from the abyss.
Chen Xuance's eyes flickered slightly, and the oppressive feeling in his chest began to dissipate. His previous indifference cracked like ice in the sunlight.
He raised his hand and muttered to himself, "Perhaps..."
The guard beside him felt his aura tremble, and the light of the Zanpakuto in his hand was no longer as dazzling as usual, as if it was searching for a new direction.
The noise of the battlefield instantly dropped to a minimum, with only the sound of the wind whistling through the rock walls.
Seeing this, Chen Fan approached step by step.
"Have you decided?" He placed his hand on Chen Xuance's shoulder, the pressure light but warm.
Chen Xuance took a deep breath, a hint of hesitation flashing in his eyes, before nodding.
Their fingers touched lightly, as if igniting a hidden thread.
Just then, the residual program of the observer in the distance flashed red.
It lurks at the bottom of the ancient erasure pool, seemingly waiting for its chance.
The red light suddenly converged, forming a vortex that surged upwards.
The pool water was swirled up, and silvery waves rushed towards the cave entrance.
"Start!" A deep mechanical voice echoed through the valley.
The stone slab at the bottom of the pool cracked, and beams of light shot out from the cracks, pointing straight to the sky.
At the top of the pillar of light, an ancient rune was torn apart, and fragments scattered like shooting stars.
Chen Fan looked up and saw the unknown patterns hidden in the pillar of light, his brows furrowing.
Chen Xuance also looked up, his eyes filled with a mixture of anticipation and wariness.
The mist in the valley was torn apart by the light, and golden dust hovered in the air.
"This time, are we really going to gamble it all?" Chen Fan asked in a low voice, his voice echoing in the pillar of light.
Chen Xuance did not answer immediately; the light spots in front of him were like sparks of fire, reflecting on his face.
The red light at the bottom of the pool is rapidly expanding, as if it's about to devour the entire canyon.
A deafening roar erupted deep within the valley, shaking the rock walls and sending pebbles raining down.
At the base of the beam of light, a dark shadow flashed by, accompanied by a piercing shriek.
That is……
**Unfinished**
Chapter 394 The Pool Exploded
That dark figure was not an illusion.
It shot out from the base of the pillar of light with incredible speed, the resulting wind pressure sending Chen Fan staggering back two steps. He steadied himself and squinted to see—
That was a hand.
A giant hand, wreathed in golden light, emerges from the bottom of the pool.
"Damn it." Chen Fan cursed.
The giant hand spread its five fingers, each as thick as an ancient tree trunk, with black nails and cracks, and golden light cracking at the fingertips, as if it was holding something and pulling it outwards.
It's a stone bridge that's being pulled.
"Run!" Wukong roared, already holding the golden cudgel in his hand, but he was too far away to make it in time.
Chen Xuance reacted even faster. He took half a step back, twirled the pen in his hand, and flicked out the ink, turning it into a black line that blocked his way.
But the giant hand didn't even look at him.
It grabbed onto the pier of the stone bridge.
boom--
The entire stone bridge shook violently, and cracks on the surface spread wildly like a spider web. The stone slab beneath Chen Fan's feet shattered into powder, and he sank down, nearly falling into the pool.
The pool water boiled.
The originally dark red pool water began to churn, with bubbles rising from the bottom. Each bursting bubble splashed out corrosive liquid gold. The liquid gold landed on the bridge surface, causing the stones to hiss and emit white smoke.
"This thing is dragging the bridge!" Wukong exclaimed anxiously. "It's going to drag the entire bridge down!"
Chen Fan looked up.
The giant hand was indeed pulling downwards. The bridge piers emitted a screeching sound, stone chips flew everywhere, and the entire bridge tilted towards the center of the pool at a visible speed.
"The Primal Erasure Pool has gone berserk," Chen Fan said, his voice steady, but sweat was already beading on his forehead.
He quickly scanned his surroundings.
The bridge was still collapsing, the pool water was still churning, and the giant hand was ridiculously strong; he couldn't break it with his current strength.
And what's worse is—
He saw the bottom of the pool.
Beneath the churning red water, something even larger was writhing. It wasn't a hand; it was the entire bottom of the pool contracting and squeezing, like a beating heart, each beat sending out even more golden beams of light.
Whatever those beams of light touched began to disappear.
It didn't shatter, it didn't burn, it simply vanished.
A piece of gravel on the bridge was struck by the beam of light and vanished instantly, leaving not a trace.
"If this drags on any longer," Chen Fan said rapidly, "the entire bridge will be wiped out. Everything on it—"
He paused for a moment.
"Including the conclusion page."
Chen Xuance's expression changed.
He finally understood why Chen Fan was in such a hurry.
The conclusion pages are still on the bridge. Those two pages, which they had worked so hard to produce and which recorded all the deduction results, are now being crushed under a boulder that is about to collapse.
The boulder was half cracked, and golden light seeped out from the crack.
"And there's a double shell," Chen Fan continued. "The protective shell you set up before is now pressing down under the bridge. If the pool goes berserk, the erasure area will expand—"
"I know!" Chen Xuance interrupted him, his voice tense.
Of course he knew.
He knew better than anyone how fragile his double shell was. It wouldn't last long; once the pool went berserk, the double shell would be torn open, and everything inside—the evidence he had painstakingly collected, the clues pointing to higher levels—would be erased.
Along with the first edition of Flower and Fruit Mountain.
The original Huaguo Mountain sample, hidden at the edge of the pool and preserved by special means, which has not been altered by anyone.
That's our trump card.
It is the most important thing.
"How much longer?" Chen Fan asked.
Chen Xuance did not answer; his eyes were fixed on the giant hand, and the pen in his hand was white from gripping it so tightly.
"At most three breaths," he finally spoke, his voice hoarse. "After three breaths, the double shell will shatter. The instant it shatters, the erasure area will expand tenfold. Tenfold—"
He didn't go on.
Chen Fan understood without him saying it.
Even with ten times the area of erasure, this canyon still wouldn't be saved.
"Two breaths," Chen Fan corrected. "You underestimated it."
Chen Xuance suddenly looked at him.
"The bridge won't last three breaths," Chen Fan pointed to the ground beneath his feet.
One of the bridge piers had broken, and the entire bridge was leaning even more precariously. Where they were standing, stone slabs were falling one after another into the pool without a sound.
"Then why are you talking nonsense!" Chen Xuance roared.
"I'm waiting for you to say those words."
"What did you say?"
"cooperate."
Chen Xuance was stunned.
Chen Fan didn't give him time to be stunned. He suddenly bent down and grabbed the two pages from beside his feet—the conclusion pages—one of which had been swept to the edge by the golden light and was missing a corner.
He tucked the intact copy into his pocket.
Then he threw the card with the missing corner directly at Chen Xuance.
"Take it!"
Chen Xuance caught it instinctively.
He froze the moment he held the paper in his hand.
"you--"
"I'll go to Wenqiao," Chen Fan said.
Without another word, he darted out like an arrow, heading straight for the bridge pier. The giant hand was still pulling downwards; he had to find a way to prevent the bridge from collapsing so quickly.
But how can we ensure stability?
By himself?
Chen Xuance watched his retreating figure, then glanced at the paper in his hand.
The paper was missing a corner, but the writing on it was still legible. It was Chen Fan's handwriting, recording the most crucial deduction results—about the Ninth Experimental Field, about Sun Wukong, and about the starting point of the entire scheme.
He could have run away.
He could have taken this piece of paper, turned around and left, let Chen Fan die, let the bridge collapse, and let everything be erased.
Anyway, he had half a conclusion in his hand.
Half a sheet is enough.
It's enough for him to fulfill his obligations, enough for him to exchange for what he wants.
but--
He looked at Chen Fan.
The figure had already rushed to the bridge pier, using some means to prop up the stone pillar that was about to break. Golden light shone on him, his clothes began to smoke, and scorch marks appeared on his skin.
He didn't turn around.
They didn't say a single word, "Help me."
He's just holding on.
They risked their lives to hold on.
Chen Xuance's fingers tightened, and the paper was crumpled.
"Madman," he muttered under his breath.
Then he moved.
It's not about running backwards.
It's moving forward.
He rushed to the other side of the bridge in a few strides, his pen drawing an arc in the air, the ink turning into several black ropes that entangled the boulders that were about to collapse.
"You stabilize the piers, I'll stabilize the bridge deck!" he roared.
Chen Fan turned around and glanced at him.
Just one glance.
Then he laughed.
The laugh was brief, as if he had breathed a sigh of relief, or as if it had been expected all along.
"Let's begin," he said.
"What?"
"Complete the file. Signature required beforehand."
Chen Xuance understood.
They must do it now.
They couldn't delay any longer. The pool was berserking faster than they had imagined; the giant hand was growing stronger, the bridge surface was beginning to collapse in large sections, and the double shell could break at any moment.
They only have one chance.
"What are the prerequisites?" Chen Fan asked, speaking very quickly.
"Both parties initiated and completed the process simultaneously," Chen Xuance said. "At the same point, using the same style of writing, they signed and acknowledged the agreement."
"What are you signing?"
"Recognizing the signature"
Chen Xuance paused for a moment.
"The other party who signed the document is recognized as the co-signatory."
Chen Fan nodded.
"In other words, I want to acknowledge you, and you want to acknowledge me."
"right."
"And then what?"
"The merge is now in effect. The two conclusion pages will be combined into one, and all deduction results will be locked and will not be erased."
"Is it that simple?"
Chen Xuance sneered.
"You think it will be easy?"
Chen Fan remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
"At the moment of signing," Chen Xuance said, "our consciousnesses briefly connect to the same node. That node—"
He pointed to the wriggling, heart-like mass at the bottom of the pool.
"Inside that thing."
Chen Fan's pupils contracted slightly.
"What is the core of accessing the original erasure pool?"
"right."
"How long will the connection last?"
"One breath."
"What can you do in a breath?"
"Enough for signing one word."
Chen Fan fell silent.
Sign your name.
They had to sign a pledge within a single breath at the heart of the Primal Erasure Pool, which was now running rampant, frantically erasing everything it touched.
"Will I die?" he asked.
"Possibly," Chen Xuance said. "The moment we connect, our consciousness will be directly exposed to the erasure rules. If we can withstand it, we can sign; if not—"
That's it.
"Yes. Utterly gone. Not even a soul remains."
Chen Fan nodded.
"OK."
He spoke so casually, as if Chen Xuance had just said not "possibly die," but "possibly it will rain."
"You—" Chen Xuance wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Chen Fan.
"There's one more question," Chen Fan said.
"What?"
"Signature is required before verification; witnessing is necessary."
Chen Xuance was taken aback.
"witness?"
"The signing and verification process must be witnessed by a third party," Chen Fan said. "That's the rule. The rule you set."
Chen Xuance's expression changed.
He did indeed set this rule. To prevent the abuse of combined transactions, he added a restriction—signatures must be witnessed by a third party, and the witness must be an "unrelated party" who cannot have any interest in the matter.
"Where did this third party come from?!"
He stopped mid-sentence.
Because he saw Chen Fan's gaze passing over him and looking in a certain direction.
Chen Xuance looked in that direction.
That's Wukong.
Sun Wukong stood at a distance, anxiously pacing back and forth, unable to get a word in edgewise.
"Him?" Chen Xuance frowned. "He's one of your men—"
"He was the first survivor of the Ninth Experimental Field," Chen Fan said. "In a sense, he was the most suitable witness."
"But his relationship with you—"
"It's irrelevant," Chen Fan interrupted him. "He's irrelevant in this matter of file consolidation and signing. He didn't participate in the deduction, he didn't participate in the conclusion; he was an observer from beginning to end."
Chen Xuance remained silent.
He was thinking quickly.
Chen Fan was right. Wukong didn't participate in their deductions; he simply watched from the sidelines. According to the rules, he could serve as a witness.
but--
"Is he willing?" Chen Xuance asked.
"Ask him."
Chen Fan turned his head and shouted at Wukong:
"monkey!"
Wukong immediately looked over, his golden cudgel already gripped tightly, ready to charge at any moment.
"Something's wrong!"
"This is important!" Chen Fan said. "We need to do a signing process, and we need you as a witness."
"What signature?"
"You don't need to know what it is. You just need to look, and then—"
He paused for a moment.
"Then confirm that you saw it."
Wukong frowned.
He couldn't quite understand what Chen Fan was saying, but he could sense the gravity of the situation. The bridge was collapsing, the pool was raging, the giant hand was frantically pulling downwards, and both Chen Fan and the guy surnamed Chen were covered in injuries and could fall in at any moment.
"What do you want me to do?" he asked.
"You don't need to do anything," Chen Fan said. "Just watch. Watch us sign, and then—"
"Then what?"
"And then survived."
Wukong was stunned for a moment.
"What do you mean?"
"It means—" Chen Fan said, "If this signing is successful, the pool will stop. If it fails—"
He didn't continue.
Wukong understood.
If it fails, the pool won't stop, the bridge will collapse, and they will all be wiped out.
"I'll do it," he said, his voice steady.
Chen Fan nodded.
"good."
He turned to look at Chen Xuance.
"Ready?"
Chen Xuance took a deep breath.
His hands were shaking, but he managed to control them.
"start."
Both of them raised their hands at the same time.
In Chen Fan's hand, he held the complete conclusion page.
In Chen Xuance's hand, he held the torn-out conclusion page.
Their pens fell at the same time.
In the final moment before the bridge collapsed, in the last instant before the double shell shattered, in the second before the golden pillar of light engulfed everything—
Their pens touched the paper at the same time.
hum-
An invisible wave erupted from both of them simultaneously.
The ripples penetrated the bridge surface, the pool water, and reached the writhing core at the bottom of the pool.
Chen Fan felt a sudden darkness before his eyes.
His consciousness was pulled away.
It pulled into that golden, surging, frantically erasing everything—
core.
-
He opened his eyes in a void.
There is no up or down, no near or far, only boundless golden light, and countless shimmering, crumbling fragments within that light.
Those fragments are memories.
It is something that has been erased.
He saw human faces, the outlines of mountains, the direction of rivers, the rings of trees—all disintegrating, all disappearing.
This is the core of the original erasure pool.
This is its interior.
And he is standing right here.
"You've arrived."
A voice rang in his ears.
Chen Fan suddenly turned his head.
He saw Chen Xuance.
Or rather, they saw a projection of Chen Xuance's consciousness.
It was a blurry human figure, its outline indistinct, as if it might disintegrate at any moment.
"Only one breath left," Chen Xuance said. "Sign quickly."
Chen Fan nodded.
He raised his hand—
He was stunned.
His hand was disintegrating.
His fingertips had begun to turn transparent, and the golden light was eroding his consciousness, erasing him bit by bit.
"Don't look!" Chen Xuance roared, "Sign! Sign now!"
Chen Fan gritted his teeth.
He forced himself to focus on the pen.
The pen is still there.
In his projected consciousness, the pen was the last thing to crumble—because the pen carried his will, and the word he was about to sign.
He put pen to paper.
In the void, within the golden light, on the verge of collapse—
He wrote down a single word.
认。
At the same time, Chen Xuance wrote the same character next to him.
The two characters for "recognize" meet, overlap, and merge in the void.
hum-
A blinding white light exploded.
Chen Fan felt as if he had been violently struck by something, his consciousness jolted violently, and everything before his eyes was spinning, collapsing, and rebuilding—
Then he heard a sound.
A third-party perspective.
The voice of a witness.
"I saw it."
That's Wukong.
"I saw you sign it."
The white light engulfed everything.
-
The next instant, Chen Fan suddenly opened his eyes.
He's still on the bridge.
Or rather, on the ruins of the bridge.
The entire stone bridge had collapsed, leaving only a small platform beneath their feet, hanging precariously on the bridge pier.
But the pool—
The pool has been closed.
The churning red water stilled, the gushing golden light vanished, and the giant hand that had emerged from the bottom of the pool—
It is slowly retracting.
It was as if something had been soothed, suppressed, and sank back to the bottom of the pool.
"It's a success." Chen Xuance's voice rang out from the side, so hoarse that it was almost inaudible.
Chen Fan turned to look at him.
The man slumped to the ground, covered in blood, still clutching the pen in his hand, which was trembling violently.
"Did you succeed?" Chen Fan asked.
"The merge has taken effect," Chen Xuance said. "The conclusion page is locked. The erasure rule... is temporarily suppressed."
"temporary?"
"The pool has only stopped, it's not gone," Chen Xuance said. "It will go berserk again. But at least—"
He held up what he was holding.
It was a piece of paper.
No, it's two sheets of paper joined together.
The paper was covered with dense writing, recording all their deductions, all the evidence, and all the clues.
Conclusion page.
Complete.
"At least this one was saved," Chen Xuance said.
Chen Fan looked at him, then looked at the person in his arms.
The piece of paper in his arms was gone—it had been merged into the one in Chen Xuance's hand.
"You're holding it?" he asked.
"Half for each of us," Chen Xuance said. "After the scrolls are combined, the conclusion page will split into two parts, with identical content but belonging to different parties. Yours—"
He paused for a moment.
"Your share will automatically appear in your mind's eye."
Chen Fan was stunned for a moment, and then he felt that there was indeed something new in his sea of consciousness.
He ignored it.
"What do we do now?" he asked.
Chen Xuance supported himself on the ground and slowly stood up.
His face looked terrible, as if all his strength had been drained, but his eyes were a little brighter than before.
"Next step," he said, "signing complete, and the document is now in effect. Next—"
He looked at the pond.
The pool water had returned to calm, the giant hand had completely retracted, and the golden light had diminished considerably. But the heart-like mass at the bottom of the pool was still pulsating slightly.
"Next," Chen Xuance said, "we're going down."
"Go down?"
"Go down to the bottom of the pool," he said. "Go get that thing."
"What is that?"
Chen Xuance pointed to the bottom of the pool.
Beside that wriggling, heart-like thing, there was a stone tablet.
A line of words is engraved on the stone tablet.
The characters were very small and not clearly visible from above, but the last two characters could be vaguely discerned—
"Experimental field."
Chen Fan's pupils contracted slightly.
"The Ninth Experimental Field?" he asked.
"No." Chen Xuance shook his head.
His voice was low, carrying a kind of repressed and complex emotion.
"First Experimental Field."
Chen Fan was stunned.
"First--"
"That's where it all began," Chen Xuance said. "It's also where—"
He paused for a moment.
"This is also where Sun Wukong was truly born."
In the distance, Wukong's body suddenly stiffened.
He heard it.
"What do you mean?" he asked, his voice deep. "What does 'the place of one's true origin' mean?"
Chen Xuance turned to look at him.
"Do you think you sprang from a rock?" he asked.
Wukong frowned.
"I--"
"That was a setup," Chen Xuance said. "Your birth from a stone was arranged by someone. Everything about you—your origins, your abilities, everyone you've met, everything you've experienced—"
He spoke slowly and deliberately.
"They're all experiments."
Wukong's expression changed.
"What experiment?"
"The Ninth Experimental Field," Chen Xuance said. "You are the first survivor of the Ninth Experimental Field, and the only successful sample."
"And before you—"
He pointed to the stone tablet at the bottom of the pool.
"There are still eight failures."
Chen Fan looked at Wukong.
The monkey's expression was very complex.
Shock, anger, confusion, disbelief—all intertwined on his face.
"You—" Wukong wanted to say something, but his throat felt like it was blocked by something.
"Now," Chen Xuance said, "we're going to the first experimental field. Let's go take a look—"
He looked at Chen Fan.
"Go and see when this whole thing started."
Chen Fan remained silent for a moment.
Then he nodded.
"Walk."
The three of them walked towards the bottom of the pool.
And the stone tablet at the bottom of the pool, bathed in golden light, slowly revealed more characters—
That was no ordinary stone tablet.
That was a tombstone.
The tombstone bears the name.
A name that Chen Fan was very familiar with.
His pupils suddenly contracted.
"this--"
The name engraved on the stone tablet at the bottom of the pool was Chen Fan's name in the modern world before he transmigrated. The First Experimental Field was actually related to him?
Chapter 395 Monkey, Be My Witness
The words on the stone tablet gleamed coldly in the golden light.
The name Chen Fan.
His name, which he used for twenty years in modern society, is engraved on a tombstone at the bottom of the Journey to the West world pool.
Hold.
Chen Fan forced out the word through clenched teeth. He touched his chest with his fingers, the embers of the black lamp throbbing beneath his skin. Chen Xuance stood beside him, his head bowed even lower, his shoulders taut like iron.
"The first experimental field," Chen Xuance's voice was hoarse like sandpaper rubbing against wood, "the earliest template. Your name is engraved here because... you are the 'origin point'."
"The source?" Chen Fan didn't even lift his eyelids. "Speak like a human."
"The first survivor to awaken in the Ninth Experimental Field must testify to confirm that the new text has a real-world basis." Chen Xuance quickly glanced at the churning gray-gold turbulence around him. "For the rules to merge the two versions of Flower Fruit Mountain, someone must prove that this place was written by Chen Fan, not deduced by the system."
Chen Fan understood. He wrote it. After transmigrating, he used a hundred years of time feeding fruits, every step he took to turn Sun Wukong against his will, and every foolish thing he did—building a navy, kidnapping Tang Sanzang, and clashing with the Heavenly Court—to carve out a piece of "real" reality from the system's hands. Now this piece of reality needs to be merged with the original experimental setting, and a living witness is required.
The witness must be the person who first came into contact with him and witnessed him change his fate.
There was only one person who matched the criteria.
boom--!
Suddenly, a blinding golden light exploded from the bottom of the pool. A distorted shadow leaped out of the light, half gold and half black, its features churning in the turbulent water, its shrill laughter piercing the eardrums.
"Proof...?" The shadow floated in the air, its voice like ten broken gongs pounding simultaneously, "An ant dares to tamper with the standards? Chen Fan? Chen Xuance? You're nothing but a string of gibberish in the program!"
It is the observer's remnant. The discontent of the rules themselves.
"Once the merge process is initiated, all old data will be erased!" The shadow pointed at the stone tablet, "Including you! Including the monkeys! These hundred years were all simulations! All fake—"
The word "fake" didn't land.
A golden shadow burst out from the side of the turbulent flow, so fast that only a blur remained. The golden cudgel, without any fancy moves, swept horizontally from bottom to top, smashing into the waist of the twisted shadow like sweeping away trash.
puff!
The shadow was folded in half by the blow, and the wailing stopped abruptly. Half of its body instantly disintegrated, turning into golden specks of light that flew about.
"Hold."
Sun Wukong descended from mid-air, landing on the collapsed bridge with one foot. The bridge flickered in and out of existence amidst the turbulent currents of change, its stones constantly crumbling and reforming. He stood there, his staff slung over his shoulder, his fiery eyes sweeping over the dissipating shadows before settling on Chen Fan's face.
"So noisy." The monkey grinned, its teeth dazzlingly white. "Written by Chen Fan? Then it's definitely real."
The entire room fell silent.
Pigsy was cracking melon seeds on a rock by the shore, a kernel stuck in his throat. Sandy's demon-subduing staff slammed into his foot with a clang, but he didn't feel any pain. The White Dragon Horse appeared in human form, its dragon eyes shrinking to pinpoints. The Bull Demon King and his son, on the edge of the turbulent waters further away, had identical expressions—as if they had seen a ghost.
The remaining fragments of the Observer, half-shattered, struggled to coalesce, their voices filled with astonishment and disbelief: "You... how could you... touch the entity of the rules..."
"Get lost." Sun Wukong didn't bother with any more words. With a flick of his wrist, he raised his golden cudgel again. "If you say another word, I'll smash the rest of your cudgel too."
The shadow fell completely silent. It knew this monkey was truly daring. And it could sense it—there was no trace of "system privileges" on this monkey. He was a "cheat code," a vulnerability that had forcefully breached all firewalls.
Chen Xuance took a deep breath and looked at the stone tablet. The name on it was now faintly synchronized with the rhythm of the black lamp on Chen Fan's chest, one bright and one dim.
"It's done." Chen Xuance's voice was soft, yet strangely it reached everyone's ears. "The earliest awakened survivor in the Ninth Experiment Field—Sun Wukong. He was the one who handed over the first fruit under the Five Fingers Mountain a hundred years ago, and he was the one who said the first words, 'I, Old Sun, acknowledge you.' He testifies that Flower Fruit Mountain is a reality written by Chen Fan, not a system simulation."
The stone tablet was lifted off the ground with a roar, transforming into a pillar of light that collided violently with the gray-gold turbulence erupting from the bottom of the pool.
There was no explosion.
Only a silent devouring. The two beams of light swirled and pulled at their intersection, like two streams of water finally finding a way to converge. Fragments of the collapsed bridge were sucked into the beams of light, and the distant mountain shadows began to blur and redraw—the outline of the old Huaguo Mountain faded, and the banners of the new Huaguo Mountain navy appeared and disappeared in the phantom.
The dual-shell system is rolled up, and the program starts.
"Start the merge, synchronize memory extraction—" Chen Xuance suddenly groaned and clutched his head hard.
Chen Fan also sensed it.
It wasn't pain. It was "losing something." Like someone ripped a piece of film from his brain, and in that vacuum moment, the world cracked open in his eyes. He saw—when he first arrived, at the foot of Five Finger Mountain, a monkey, its eyes glowing with hunger, took the wild fruit he offered, swallowed it whole, and spat out the pit, which landed on his forehead. The monkey said, "...Thanks, little immortal."
The colors of those memories are fading.
"No..." Chen Fan staggered, reaching for Sun Wukong's arm, "Monkey!"
Wukong turned his head, his fiery eyes blazing with golden light, and grabbed his wrist with such force that it felt like he could crush bones.
"Chen Fan." The monkey uttered two words, each one heavy with meaning. "I acknowledge that you wrote this place. Whoever steals your memory, I'll smash their pot."
He looked up, his golden cudgel aimed at the intersection of the beams of light, where more distorted shadows were being generated—a backlash from the rules caused by the merging of the beams.
"But..." Chen Fan felt his voice fluttering, "If it's taken away, I won't be myself anymore..."
"Then don't smoke." The monkey grinned, his teeth still so white, but his eyes were so fierce they looked like he wanted to kill someone. "My fruit isn't for nothing."
The vortex of light spun faster and faster, and Chen Xuance was already kneeling on the ground, blood of mixed gold and black seeping from between his fingers. He screamed hoarsely, "The merging is irreversible! Unless... there is double proof! Wukong only proved 'real existence,' he still lacks one more proof—proof of 'the irreplaceable subject'!"
The subject is irreplaceable.
Chen Fan stared at his name, which was fading more and more on the stone tablet.
It turns out a second certificate is needed. To prove that Chen Fan is a unique "source" in this "reality," irreplaceable by system data.
Who can vouch for this?
He was alone.
But he himself is having his memories extracted.
"Damn it!" Chen Fan cursed, using all his strength to grab the embers of the black lamp on his chest. It wasn't fire, it was pain, it was every day of feeding the fruit for a hundred years, every blow he took when turning the monkeys against him, every curse he received when binding Tang Sanzang, and every sleepless night he stayed up building the navy.
It hurts. It fucking hurts.
But he must remember. Remember the shape of the monkey's mouth when he said "I, Old Sun, acknowledge you," remember the voice of the first troll shouting "Strategist," and remember every stroke of his name engraved on this tombstone.
The suction force of the beam of light suddenly increased.
Chen Fan saw his hands begin to become transparent.
"Chen Fan!" Wukong roared, swinging his golden cudgel in a wide arc towards the pillar of light, but was knocked back three steps by the turbulent current that bounced back, his tiger's mouth split open, and blood flowed down the cudgel.
"It's useless..." Chen Xuan spat out through gritted teeth, his words dripping with blood. "The merge rules are above the authority..."
Chen Fan stopped watching. He closed his eyes, kneading all the remaining pain into a red-hot charcoal, and pressed it into the deepest part of his memory that was being extracted—
There is a stone tablet there. It bears a name. It shines.
There was also a monkey that, amidst the turbulence, smashed the rules with a single blow.
He opened his mouth, but his voice was so soft that only he and the rules that were about to dissipate could hear it:
"I testify."
That moment.
All the names on the stone tablet, including Chen Fan's, suddenly lit up.
The vortex of light stopped rotating.
The two versions of the illusory Flower Fruit Mountain overlapped for the last time at the highest point of the collapsed bridge.
A new stone tablet rose from the overlapping section, bearing only one line of text, the ink still wet, as if it had just been written:
"This world was created by Chen Fan."
Sun Wukong looked up at the words and suddenly laughed, laughing like a complete idiot.
"That's right." He wiped the blood off the stick, hoisted it up, and said, "If anyone touches a hair on his head again, this is the stick."
The golden light at the bottom of the pool slowly receded.
Chen Fan knelt on the collapsed bridge, soaked to the bone as if he had just been pulled from the water. He touched the embers of the black lamp on his chest; it was extinguished. But something hotter remained, etched into his bones.
Chen Xuance lay beside him, panting heavily, and suddenly whispered, "The first proof, Wukong proved 'Reality has an owner.' The second proof... is your own proof 'The owner cannot be replaced.' The scroll is complete, the two shells are united, and the old shell of the Ninth Experimental Field... is officially archived."
Chen Fan didn't have the strength to ask any further questions. All he knew was that his name was still on the stone tablet.
It's lit up.
The monkey's stick was dripping blood, which mixed with his own blood and seeped into the soil of the new world.
The mist in the valley has completely dissipated.
Behind it, a brand new, misty green mountain appeared.
And...above the green mountains, the outline of a third layer of sky faintly floats.
A cold light gleamed within those silhouettes.
Like an eye.